Inspired by the industries such as food and beverage, metal and steel, as well as petroleum and petrochemical ones, the current study addresses a joint order acceptance and scheduling, lot streaming in a flexible flow shop and batch delivery problem. For maximizing a profit objective function with trading off between the revenue of the accepted orders and the costs incurred, a novel mixed integer linear programming is proposed. This paper develops a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm based on the Genetic Algorithm. In the developed algorithm, (1) a heuristic, (2) a local search, and (3) a restart phase is proposed. To set the appropriate parameters of the algorithms, Taguchi experimental design was applied. The obtained results reveal the appropriate performance of the hybrid genetic algorithm.

In this study, a 3D finite element model of an intact mandible was used for the simulation of the movement of the lower jaw and analysis of the effects of TemporoMandibular Joint (TMJ) prosthesis replacement on the jaw movement. Seven bundles of muscle fibers were inserted in their appropriate positions following anatomical data. Digastric, geniohyoid and lateral pterygoid muscles were considered for opening the mouth while medial pterygoid, superficial masseter, deep masseter and temporalis muscles were used for closing the mouth. Then, the TMJ was replaced by two different types of TMJ prostheses in the same way as in a surgery operation. One of the prostheses was designed based on anatomical shape of the ramus and condyle of the mandible while the other one was taken similar to the commercial TMJ prostheses. Eventually, all three models underwent an opening jaw simulation and produced an identical range of motion while were mismatched in other parameters. The results show that since the anatomical TMJ prosthesis resembles the shape and structure of an intact mandible; therefore, it is more capable of simulating the motion of mandible compared to the commercial TMJ prosthesis. Furthermore, better contact between the anatomical TMJ prosthesis and the mandible leads to lower stress distribution in comparison with the commercial TMJ implant. Finally, as the amount of muscle forces and strain in anatomical TMJ prosthesis replacement are less than the commercial one, the patient needs to make less effort to move the mandible and open the mouth.

In this study, a single product is considered which starts to deteriorate with constant rate of replenishment and demand rate is time and price dependent exponential function. Shortage is allowed with partial back logging and the relationship between backorder rate and waiting time is considered to be exponential. The aim is to decide pricing strategy and maximize total average profit function. Total profit function is optimized analytically and proved to be concave function of price. Finally, numerical example is given to illustrate the implementation of the algorithm followed by the sensitivity analysis.

In this paper, a mathematical model for multi-product inventory management in a three-tier supply chain consisting of multi-supplier, a manufacturer, and several retailers is presented. The model determines different factors such as the optimum ordering of the raw materials and the optimal level of the production items with the optimal order of the products by retailers at each level of the chain, with the objective of minimizing inventory management costs in the supply chain. An algorithm is presented to determine the solution of the problem and the implementation of the proposed method is demonstrated using some numerical example.

This study examined the effect of board diversity on the financial performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study also examined the relationship between board independence and financial performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria. For the purpose of this study, the proxy for financial performance is profit margin while the proxies for board diversity and board independence are the ratio of female directors to total board size and ratio of non-executive directors to total board size, respectively. The data for the study were sourced from the annual reports of 10 listed deposit money banks in Nigeria from 2008 to 2017. The data were analyzed using pooled Ordinary Least Square regression. The results show that the coefficient of board diversity was positively signed and statistically significant at 5% (β=0.34, ρ=0.02); the coefficient of board independence was positively signed and statistically significant at 5% (β= 0.11, ρ=0.02). The study concludes that both gender diversity and board independence positively affect the financial performance of deposit money banks in Nigeria. Therefore, the study recommends that deposit money banks should encourage appointment of qualified female directors on the board. In addition, deposit money banks should ensure the independence of the board by appointing independent non-executive director who are well experienced in bank management.

The purpose of this study is to provide updated information and facts of the Malaysian audit market concentration and auditor workload. The global auditing services market is presently dominated by a group of four audit firms which known as Big 4; namely Deloitte, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG. The audit industry in Malaysia offers several exemptions, as observed that two of non-big 4 audit firms succeeded to make their place into the Malaysian top 4. The study examined the audit firms share based on the number of audits and included all Malaysian public listed companies from 2012 to 2016.The findings indicate that the Malaysian audit market falls into the category of loose oligopoly and dominated by 8 audit firms. It is noted that the market share of the Big 4 in Malaysia have been reduced over a five-year period 2012-2016, and these firms mainly focusing more on large or more established clients. The examination related to auditor workload suggests that there is a decreasing trend in the workload of individual audit partners; on average the Big 4 firms staffing ratio is lower as compared with non-big 4 which may indicate that Big 4 partners have less workload. The study is useful for policy makers and regulators to better analyze the audit market concentration and workload in Malaysia.

This paper presents a survey on the effect of corporate dividend payout policy on stock price volatility. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of dividend payout ratio on the stock price volatility in Pakistan Stock Exchange. A sample of 15 firms from PSX is considered and the study covers the historical data over the period 2011-2015. Stock Price volatility is the dependent variable in this study and dividend payout ratio is the main independent variable. For this purpose, some other independent variables are also included such as Earnings Volatility, Size of the firm, Leverage and Assets Growth. The study has determined a positive relationship between stock price volatility and dividend payout ratio. In addition, our results show that earnings volatility and leverage had negative relationship with stock price volatility. Other independent variables including assets growth and size have maintained positive relationship with stock price volatility.

This research includes an extensive review of the studies associated with Corporate Governance. The study uses Scopus database as a primary search engine to collect the necessary data and collects 333 records over the period 2010-2018.The purpose of this research is to investigate the structured study of research activities carried out around the subject of corporate governance which have been published in international, well-known and credible magazines, books and sites. For this purpose, the study searches the phrase corporate governance on Scopus site and detects around 7200 documents and 2000 of highly cited documents are selected for the purpose of the investigation accomplished by a bibliometrics tool. The study limits the survey on published articles over the period 1993-2009 and detects 806 documents among 2000 documents from Scopus. The results indicate that papers published by researchers in United States have received the highest citations (8669), followed by United Kingdom (2094) and Australia with 1557 citations.

Efficient and stable performance of the banking system underpins sustainable growth of any economy. Of late, several economic reforms have been initiated in India for facilitating growth and withstanding dynamics of global economy. In this context, the current study compares the performance of the selected private and public sector banks in India on a five year time horizon in order to discern any changes in the performance over a period of time. First, the performance of the selected banks are examined in terms of management efficiency perspective using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique such as Combinative Distance-based Assessment (CODAS) when an Entropy method is also employed for determining criteria weight. The study also applies k-Means Clustering for checking consistency of performance based ranking with asset management efficiency. Finally, the paper delves into the relationship between financial and market performance. The study has found consistent results and observed private sector banks perform better than the public sector.

This study examined the association between fair value accounting and reliability of accounting information. The study adopted survey research along with quantitative methods. Users of the accounting information represented by corporate investment analysts and corporate portfolio managers were the respondents for the purpose of this study. The population size was one hundred and sixty-one (161) users of accounting information decomposed into one hundred (100) corporate investment analysts and sixty-one (61) corporate portfolio managers. The primary source of data was employed with the structured questionnaire as an instrument used to collect the data. Data was collected through the administration of 161 copies of the questionnaire to both corporate investment analysts and corporate portfolio managers. One hypothesis was formulated and was tested using the Pearson product moment correlation technique at a significant level of 5% and 10% while the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was engaged to analyze the data. Findings revealed a significant association between fair value accounting and reliability of accounting information of the firms in Nigeria. Hence, the study recommended that adequate and regular training programs and conferences on fair value accounting application have to be organized. This is because most of the employees of the companies in Nigeria did not understand how to use fair value in an inactive market, appropriately. Thus, it is of great importance that they were trained to understand different valuations and estimation techniques of fair value; how and when to apply them in the measurement of assets and liabilities in the financial statement.